#unsighted

So, maybe this bit of information is reading into the story a bit more than intended, but I have to bring something up. I finished my playthrough of this game in November, just less than a week after the annual Trans Day of Rememberance and after actually going to a TDOR event for the first time in over a decade. It's a disgusting travesty that we still have so many names to add to the list of trans people who have died or been killed as a result of a bigoted world, and while I understand that my skin color makes me far less likely to be targeted than many other women, the mortal danger I could face is still something that lives in my head. However, while the USA has dozens of reported cases of trans deaths each year, there is one country that has always had more names on the list than us: Brazil. The two programmers of Unsighted (and the upcoming Abyss X Zero) are trans women living in Brazil. That feels particularly important when considering that Unsighted is a game that, at its core, is about mortality and the idea of how the humanity of those who are not considered "natural" is often denied by those in power.

The humans in Unsighted are being guided by a sense of greed and want, as well as their belief in their inherent superiority over the automatons that have gained sentience. Ultimately, the greed is what both dooms the scientists working with Anima, and awakens the automatons to the emotions that humans naturally have. Despite how, on the surface, that may read as simply a "humans suck" story, it's made clear that it's not that simple. There are multiple examples of human beings acting in kindness and with understanding, even fighting against other humans who wish to continue exploiting the automatons. Raquel, the main character Alma's girlfriend, carries many memories of wonderful human qualities within her despite being at war with those humans who seek to enslave the freed automatons. Additionally, the main characters and other automatons suffer from human flaws as well, with the Unsighted being automatons who have lost access to Anima and become feral with a hunger that causes them to attack those who still have it. The ending involves the main couple traveling to another city to awaken more automatons with Anima so that they can have the ability to be free of human enslavement, even if the only way for that to happen involves fighting. This is far from a "cozy" story about liberation, but instead acknowledges that systems built to suppress and destroy us must be faced with force if necessary. This extends beyond queer liberation to women's liberation, black liberation, Palestinian liberation, and every other movement that fights to demand the recognition of the humanity of people seen as obstacles and monsters by the Powers That Be.

From a gameplay perspective, the mechanics are creative and open-ended enough that I literally had to do some stages out of order because I couldn't figure out how to do them the right way. Due to the ability to build traversal tools with the Workbench, you can start the game off with nearly every necessary item for traversal except the High Jump Boots, which are found very early in the game. This open ended potential lends itself to replayability, as you don't find this information until you reach specific points on your first playthrough. Double Hookshots and ranged Ice weapons open up so much of the world, and the Spinner doubles as a faster movement tool that can ride on some electric rails. Interestingly, the game waits until pretty late in the standard gameplay route to explain that you can wall jump like in Mario 64 or Ninja Gaiden, but you have the ability to do it as soon as you get the boots. Due to these elements, Unsighted is closer to an Immersive Sim than most Metroidvanias tend to be, and the level of creativity available to traveling the world and solving puzzles is very impressive. The only place this kinda falters is with the HAILEE walking mech in the Factory, as it's environment specific and required for progression due to certain doors that can only be opened with its weight and boxes that can only be pushed by it. There are also doors that can only be opened with its missiles until you get the Meteor Sword/Axe later in the game, but thankfully they did include that work around since the HAILEE gets destroyed at the end of the Factory.

Oh, I forgot to mention the time limit. Remember that thing I said about living as a trans person and at least sometimes feeling your mortality a bit more acutely as a result? Well, Unsighted gives every friendly character in the game (including you) a time limit, and only one item can extend the limit. The Meteor Dust used for that purpose is a rare consumable that, while not truly limited, is very hard to come by outside of the fixed locations in the game where you normally find it. This means each lump, which gives a character an extra 24 minutes of game time before going hollow/Unsighted, is a precious resource. It's also consumed to make your permanent Estus Flasks/healing syringes, although you can have up to three disposable syringes that are actually pretty cheap to make, and you can also make cheap Defensive Cogs to give you 3 hits of complete immunity to damage before breaking. Heck, you can boost that to 5 hits at the cost of two chip slots by giving the nice old lady Teresa 3 Meteor Dust, which is a pretty good deal considering she has the least time left of anyone in the starting village. Everyone gives you something if you give them 3 lumps to Dust, and some of these items can break the game, like the Portable Anvil to craft mid combat, or the Elemental Sword that has all three debuffs randomly triggering when you smack enemies with it. Also, if the time limit is too much for you and you want to explore at your leisure, you can turn it off and on anytime you want, but I recommend against it on your first playthrough. It kinda feels like the main narrative conceit of the game in regards to everything I've said about the liberation message and the intentions of the Human scientists in the story, and turning it off is something that feels very much like an element of either convenience or accessibility for people who know they aren't going to be able to finish the game at a reasonable speed. Things get harder as you lose allies, after all.

Unsighted is unapologetically queer, and belongs side by side with Celeste as an incredible action game that is unafraid to be painful in its storytelling. Both games are ultimately uplifing, and can easily connect beyond a queer audience, although Unsighted is very overtly gay. It's also got a lot of body positivity aspects to the design with all the different physical robot bodies that exist. Even automatons with visible disabilities exist in a positive light. Unsighted has things to say about how we understand our bodies, how we understand our humanity and our flaws, and how we understand our inevitable death, but most of all it says one thing louder than anything else: